Effect of ileal conduit on patients' activities following radical cystectomy

Over the last twenty months, 110 patients who have undergone a radical cystectomy for bladder cancer at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center were surveyed to assess the effect of an ileal conduit urinary diversion on postoperative activity. Postoperatively, 47.3 percent of the patients were very active, 34.5 percent were moderately active, and 18.2 percent were sedentary. Chemotherapy and the patient's gender were found to have a statistically significant effect on postoperative activity level. Chemotherapy resulted in a decrease of very active patients from 55.6 percent to 27.9 percent and an increase in sedentary patients from 11.2 percent to 30.2 percent (P = 0.005). No difference in activity levels was seen in 73.9 percent of the nonchemotherapy patients. Fifty-one percent of the men were very active as compared with only 19.1 percent of the women, whereas 20 percent more women than men were moderately active and 13 percent more were sedentary. Our experience indicates that the ileal conduit had no significant negative effect on activity if the effects of chemotherapy are controlled: 82.6 percent of the patients not receiving chemotherapy experienced either no change or an increase in their activity.